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Kris Schaumburg

Well-known member
As a general lurker, I like to post at a rate infrequent enough to keep me off of Tod's list of people who corrupt the board with excess content, but slightly more than someone like Sutton who most people assume is either dead or hold up in a hostile in a third world country.


I've noticed a crabbing kick on the forum as of late, so I thought I'd show the variety we get down here (blue crabs).
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We generally trap them in a 4 funnel trap, baited with trout carcasses
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Trout is something we have in spades here so its usually not too difficult to come up with a few carcasses, it also happens to be the most popular meal in my household
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Speaking of meals, one of those fish in the pic above had eyes larger than his stomach.
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Just for the record, I like the off topic content. Nicely done, I love the look of those trout!

No joking allowed here though, I've heard some people hate that.
 
In a normal year I catch lots of fish, some large ones
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and some smaller ones, their impact on my memory is not always directly proportionate to size
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Not to be out done by her brother, his twin sister likes catching stuff too, she just isn't as into fish
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South LA is blessed with a fishery that allows us to purchase very little protein from the grocery store
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Thanks to their momma being a very patient and loving woman, I could post dead tuna pics pretty much ad nauseam but I will just throw one up for prosperity
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And give you an idea of what they look like in their processed form
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In case their is a concern of " game hog", I will tell you that everything I keep gets processed quickly and efficiently. I generally stay well under the limits. For example, this weekend we brought 40 yellowfin to the boat, but only kept 13 (well under our legal limit of 18). We are all very proficient with a knife, and are throwing a huge sushi party tonight. Our fish stay very well iced, this is probably my biggest pet peeve with fish pictures I see and boats I'm invited to run for people. This is how a fish should be iced, much larger ratio of ice than fish, and in a slush rather than just cubes with air pockets packed around a fish
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As I said, the tuna tend to run together, I've had a couple trips in the past two weeks with numbers that boggle the mind. We were fortunate enough to take first in one tournament and third in another. However, some fish will stand out in one's mind for eternity? or until senility?
The marlin pictured above is right at 350#, around 102" measured from the fork in the jaw (mouth) to the tail. On a fall day last year, I was offshore when another captain happened to call and say that a tuna was holding only around 30' under his boat (total water depth 5k' or so). The tuna was not eating, but he could see it on the sounder. I was only about 50 yds from him, and my brother was on the boat so he took the wheel, while I grabbed my speargun (30' is well within my breathhold). I jumped in, and began swimming towards the other boat, about half way there I looked down and noticed what appeared to be a tiger shark (striped and lit up) closing on me from below at light speed. It immediately ran up into my face (I'm about 5'10", but had 4' flippers on, so LOA around 10'). The fish turned out to be a marlin in the grander range. I jabbed her with the speargun a few times and she calmed down, and decided not to eat me. She bird dogged me off my right leg, as I continued swimming to his boat. I reached his boat, took a breath (an integral part of freediving is being calm, and at this point I assume my heart rate was about 300 bpm) and hoped I could reach the tuna below. Success! and hopefully a moment I will recall forever, definitely once in a lifetime
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Sorry, I got long winded there for a second. That is one of the more memorable stories of my life, and I thought it deserved a lil back story. Back to mostly pics and few words. Turkey season this year close to home was wonderful. The kids were older and able to join us in the woods
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Sadly neither has yet to hear a distinctive close gobble, but it doesn't keep my daughter from hooting like an owl constantly. And both got to hold birds.
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I also made had become an annual pilgrimage north, and enjoyed multiple beers with someone from the board who I'm pleased to call a good friend
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Somewhere in between the turkeys in the morning, and the beers of the evening, he took time to show me that not all trout come from saltwater
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And that ya'lls northern fish eat at least as well, especially when enjoyed in a beautiful location
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WOW Kris, you are my new hero. Love the fish pics too. I really need to get to LA to fish. Heard so much about it for years and have never set foot in the state - that'll change.
 
Lets see, what other pictures do I have on this phone. Ahh yes, it is a duck board after all. It was an off year for us, but an off year here is still pretty spectacular
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I have never been much on deer, I usually shoot two a year (or none if I can help it, and someone will just drop me off two to skin and use as I see fit). However, my new favorite hunting buddy appears much more into things with fur than things with feathers (I hope this problem does not persist)
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Although I have my suspicions that his infatuation with deer, mainly revolves around the 4wheelers and mud riding aspects
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Pete, yes we have wonderful fishing, and great variety. Especially if you are willing to spend money to get away from shore. Here is a nice amberjack from last week,
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And we've been trying to start this dude young on the rules of the road
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Kris: Please rate these in order based on your take on their taste quality: cobia vs yellowfin tuna vs sea trout.

Particularly for tuna...loads of ice-water slush. Three years ago I fished off a friends boat with a four man crew...18 chinook and two steelhead later, all were "cooled" by a frozen gallon milk jug full of salt-water. Sound familiar? Frank and I cleaned the fish. I passed on taking any fillets home for consumption. Gary could not understand why...don't fish with him anymore.

We had a parasitologist from Hope College stay on-site for a month via Michigan Sea Grant funding, when I was working at MSU's, now defunct, Great Lakes Research lab. Long-story-short, he illustrated and documented that keeping fish VERY cold after capture not only delayed their decomposition rate, but also slowed the rate of out-migration of a variety of nematode and trematode parasites from internal organs, and the GI tract. I remember one Conservation Officer repeatedly gagging when she saw the ribbons of tapeworms hanging out the vents of lake trout we pulled from iced fish boxes and bagged for her to take to Social Services for distribution to their client population.

Just something to potentially motivate your reluctant peers to do a better job of icing their catch.
 
Great pics!

I'll be in N.O. in early December for a few days, might need to meet up for a beer if you're in town.

You might could talk me into the 3 hour drive over for a tuna trip......
 
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RLLigman,
in regards to taste of those 3 fish, I'd likely say Tuna>cobia>trout. However, taste is such a subjective thing. Ironically, my wife won't eat fresh tuna, and we have it in the house constantly. She'd say Trout> Cobia . Tuna=do not eat. I also know lots of captains who won't eat amberjack or cobia, its just not their thing, I personally like both.
I think the thing I catch the most flack for is that I'd say Sheepshead> red snapper.
If you really want something to get excited about, try fresh tripletail or wahoo. Both are A+++++++. Most fish when fresh and properly cared for will run circles around the fish most people removed from the ocean have access to.
 
keep me off of Tod's list of people who corrupt the board with excess content
Click to expand...

Of all the complaints about ol' T, can't say I've ever heard that one...

Nice pics, please corrupt us more often!

Chuck
 
Only Gulf of Mexico fish I have found to be completely inedible is large black drum.
I fought one once on light tackle to the point it was too exhausted to live, so I cleaned it. Once cooked it was inedible, connective tissue between muscles became this gelatinous goo. Disgusting taste.

Sheepshead is one of the tastiest fish around, same with Spadefish.
 
Nice pile of tuna there. I looooooooooove tuna and one day will catch a fresh one so I know what super fresh tastes like....


looks like you're having a great time.


Dani
 
A big component of taste, particularly when eating fish, is their texture. That's part of why I was curious. I have eaten Cobia (3.5, the .5 courtesy of a shark), yellowfin, and wahoo-all very good. I've only eaten sea trout once. Wahoo on a grill, basted with Mojo de Aho would be my first choice! Never had tripletail. Fresh kingfish grilled is okay, any other way, or reheated, I'll readily pass it up.
 
I agree with texture being a large component, that is why we are so careful with the tuna. Raw cobia is A+ for me.


As promised, told you we eat it all, Sushi party last night.
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